Oregon: Wal-Mart, Sears, Best Buy store shake-up

Best Buy has recently announced it will be closing 50 big box stores across the nation while at the same time opening 100 smaller mobile device stores. None of the larger Best Buy store closures will impact Oregon.

Sears Holding Corporation, parent company of Sears and Kmart, will be closing up to 120 of its stores and liquidating some inventory. That should raise between $140 million and $170 million in cash. And those closings are coming to a store near you: Roseburg, Ore., is losing its Sears. That will leave the Roseburg Valley Mall without an anchor tenant. Washington, too, is losing a Kmart in Lacey and a Sears in Walla Walla

This year Wal-Mart has opened a new store in Albany and will be opening a new 137,900 square foot store in Tigard and another in Lake Oswego in 2013. The new Tigard Walmart will employ 300 people, and it will have everything Walmart has and more—including a full grocery store with a well-equipped produce department and general grocery, bakery, delicatessen, and general merchandise including apparel, electronics, and lawn and garden. Walmart, meanwhile, already employs 9,850 across its 31 Oregon stores; regular full-time workers there make $12.96 per hour.